(CNS): Legislators will return to the country’s parliament this morning (Wednesday 7 September) where elected officials will finally be debating the much anticipated ‘no confidence motion’ in government filed by the opposition in April. The private member's bill, which has been moved by Opposition Leader Alden McLaughlin and seconded by the member for East End his party colleague, Arden McLean, is unlikely to pass but the PPM leader is hoping that it will at least force the government members as well as the premier to defend some of the more controversial moves of the UDP Administration.

There are 24 points listed on the motion but McLaughlin said recently that there are many more that could be added as to why the parliament should have no confidence in government. Since the motion was filed, the governor has revealed that the premier is at the heart of a police investigation into “financial irregularities" concerning correspondence that has come to light between McKeeva Bush and developer Stan Thomas back in 2004.

The fax was sent from Bush’s former ministry when he was leader of government business in 2004 during the previous UDP administration on Windsor Development headed paper. The letter asks the Texan land owner for $350,000 in connection with the re-zoning of land he had purchased along Seven Mile Road. The official paper trail has revealed that Windsor Development was not involved in the re-zoning application. Although the premier has made some references to the letter, referring to it as a real estate bill, he has made no official statement about the investigation.

Despite the public revelations of the police probe, the premier has remained in office and continues to be publicly supported by his cabinet and back bench colleagues.

Although the opposition and Ezzard Miller, the independent member from North Side who also supports the private members motion, are hoping that two of the UDP members will join them in their lack of confidence, the main purpose is to open a debate in the Legislative Assembly about the government’s record in office and have them answer some of the accusations made by the opposition about how they are failing the people.

There are no new pieces of legislation on the order paper for Wednesday but more than two dozen annual reports and financial statements from the backlog of public accounts in ministries and statutory authorities are also listed to be presented.

Comments (47)

UDP should vote out Mac because of his do nothing, say nothing and know nothing about crime. Mac don't care about public safety. Don't know about Public safety because in West Bay, crimeis a natural thing and he didn't do anything there, why should we expect him to look out for our country? He is to ignorant to even understand. Dump this chump. NOW.

The world sees how XXXXX this current government is. The fact that not one UDP member has the courage to do what is right will not be forgotten. This country is going down fast. At least a few – namely Alden, Arden and Ezzard have had the courage to bring some of it out into the public. If you cannot see the dire consequences to the reputation of this country, that your beloved premier has caused by not doing the right thing and stepping aside whilst he is under investigation, then you are totally blind. Cayman is not a little rock isolated by itself. It is a major financial centre. Any hint of wrongdoing is bad for our reputation and we have already fallen way down from 5th place. We have a Minister of Finance who knows nothing about finance. We have a leader who doesn't have any regard for the laws of this country. I am totally amazed that some people have no idea what the consequences of this will be. Let me spell it out for you – uncontrolled crime, businesses leaving, highly qualified professionals (including Caymanians) leaving the country. What will be left? A few die hards plus hundreds of people who were given status by your leader who are either criminals or on social services.

I thought you were shrewder than that. You are missing the point. Clearly the motion is not going to be passed. The object of the exercise is to give the Opposition and the independent teh opportunity to discuss on the record the many alarming failures of the govt. that would otherwise never be aired some of which are putting this country at serious risk of a UK takeover. It puts considerable pressure on Bush when there is a full airing of these issues and he cannot hide behind press statements blaming everyone else. This is a very useful tool. My prediction is that Bush will not make it to full term.

You fail to understand the seriousness of the current situation with him continuing to act as Premier and Minister of Finance under the cloud of a criminal investigation for suspected corruption, or more generally his completely reckless policies. We also run the real risk of a TCI style UK takeover.

What is the point of the Opposition coming up with alternate plans? McKeeva will not listen and they are not the government and so cannot implement them.

The Premier is under investigation, why are we in such a rush to get him out of office before the time. I'm no hater or groupie of the Premier but I do wish that he would step down for the time being and let another member of the UDP take over in the interim before this country becomes like TCI. This country is already not doing so well, we cannot afford to have the financial industry and developers pack up and leave. Too many business are folding and people are leaving not because of any fault of the UDP or PPM but because of the global economy and the rise in crime.

Does anyone really cares who runs the country? They are all self-obsessed anyway. None of them seem to be tackling the real issues such as crime and the creation of steady jobs – they are just slandering each other and continue to debate issues to do with land, roads, kickbacks etc. Deal with the REAL issues that affect REAL people – stop worrying about your pension and how much is in your own pocket. Stop people being robbed at gunpoint. Stop the burglaries. Stop the tinted windows. Stop the corruption from the top down. Create jobs for local people – steady jobs. Get the country back as it has slipped away from all of you.

They have regular on air time on Rooster and CNS to bring solutions to the people. But I am not surprised that the "faithful" would blame the UDP for the Opposition and Ezzards lack of solutions to the country's problems.

They have presented solutions and motions, the UDP keep putting them off from discussion in the LA and discussing only what they want to discuss. Thank god the motion of no confidence finally made it to the table, because now we will really hear the reasons for their "nunsensical" actions.

Hey Star, there is no $69 million missing as you truly believe that if there was $69 million missing that your hero would not be all over that and pushing an investigation, and the Auditor General would have also questioned it.

Your hero does not want the Govt accounts audited in those years as the truth would come out that Cayman is NOT broke and that there is really no $69 million missing, so Star, please crawl back under that UDP rock and realize that it might be that your hero just likes the number 69.

So the Bible says, "all have sinned and fall short from the glory of God…" This is like a man trying to make himself clean with a dirty paint brush. Rather, I would declare "no confidence" in the Constitution – a document that lacks strong direct democratic provisions for the people to hold politicians accountable; a document that reserves too much unchecked powers in the hands of the Governor who can by mandate declare direct rule or taxation on these islands without the people's consent; and, a document that has little checks and balances against politcal corruption in the Cayman Islands.

Our MLA's can always revisit the document in London. The PPM have to also swallow their pride and realize that they were the one's who spearheaded this Constitution in a haste, conjoining its ratification process on the same day of General Elections, which should have never been. There would have never been a Premier with his powers and perks if the PPM had only delayed the process in the creation of our Constitution. But like they say, "haste make waste."

People, you can write letters of complaints to the UK's FCO about this document and the value of having a direct democracy. It is not too late. Write or call the FCO and file your complaints:-

Nice try at changing the subject. The issue is not our Constitution, but since you raise it the only way to avoid the Governor having so much power is to independent. Bush behaved badly when we had the old Constitution too, but that is the subject you are trying to avoid.

I agree, Bush behaves badly no matter what, good or bad constitution, it is all the same to him. He answers to no one but himself and does anything he darn well pleases and to hell with everyone else' opinions.

All Talk and No action. Its what makes Cayman Cayman. If there is to be any action it won't be by any Caymanians.Talk Talk Talk Cry Cry Cry Whine Whine Whine.Blame Blame Blame. OK nuff work for today. I have earned my money.

Solutions are needed, the Dart project will take land that has been unusable and make it productive for the country. They tried a hotel in that area and it flopped. Creating a useable property for income and jobs, whats the problem?

Most serious people in this country are on board with rebuilding the hotel – a project tabled after the no confidence motion.

It's the whipsaw sleazeball outbursts, finger wagging, vacuous lack of basic critical thinking and factoring skills, aggrandizement, and meglomanic behavior that most oppose. The people are tired of enduring the embarressment and adolescence.

It's time for grown up thinking and integrity. These are sadly lacking in the LA.

For your information, go into every hotel on the island and check how many locals are employed in those establishments. Some of us are so naive, we cannot see beyond our noses. In the past, there were locals employed in the hospitality industry, but now, only because it is an indiviual we are ready to stick our necks out and defend that individual, and his track record of employing locals. When the Ritz Carlton was being built, the illusion was that there would be jobs for every Caymanian, and what great oppurtunies they would have. Can you tell me if any doors have open for these oppurtunies, or employment? The stupidity of some of our people goes beyond reasoning, not even to mention understanding and reading between the fine lines.

You are wrong 80% of the employees of the Ritz-Carlton are Caymanians know your facts. Don't blame the developers of these project remember 3,000 people were granted status in 2003 now multiply that number by 5 and see how many people you will get so don't say that Caymanians are not employed at the Ritz-Carlton or in the tourism industry, banking, law firms or the many other business on island. I am sure if you ask to see the passport of most of the employees at Ritz-Carlton they will give you a Caymanian/British passport, so you see they are Caymanians whether you think so or not.

Why would the Ritz Carlton hire a Caymanian who thinks showing up for work on Tuesday to Thursday is a big deal and entitles him to the full week's wages? I tried with them in my small business but gave up two years ago. I would rather close the damn business down than go through that again and guess what, many Caymanian small business owners will say the same but they are afraid to say it out loud (as I am) because of the ignorant torrent of abuse coming from the ezzardians from Planet Clueless.

The answer is you shouldn't, but you should hire a hardworking Caymanian instead. Your post is racist. You have essentially condemned every Caymanian as lazy. If such a stereotype was mentioned by Caymanians against any other nationality there would loud howls on here of xenophobia, racism, bigotry etc.

You could say the exact same thing about expats too. These bigoted points of view do not get us anywhere. There are hard working Caymanians, there are hard working expats and there are lazy ones too. What you have not considered is that an employer essentially ties an expat with a permit and therefore forces loyalty, and it can be more attractive to hire an expat.

Firstly, the negativity of Bush being in Dart's pocket or vice versa has absolutely NOTHING to do with whether or not you like Bush. This shouldn't be a popularity contest nor a Boys Club vote. But if that is the excuse you want to use, you certainly wouldn't be able to come up with anything more lame and immature.

You might take a look at why the hotel didn't do well in the first place. Did YOU ever walk in the door? Did you ever do a site inspection?

I did.

Top of my head is that the pool was built in the back/shade of the hotel!!! How stupidly ridiculous is that? Most ignorant thing I have ever heard of in a Caribbean resort.

It had not one thing going for it. You needed a car to stay there as there is nothing within walking distance. It was poorly designed, the interiors were blasé, it had a fowl musty odour, staff was indifferent, I could go on. You may as well have been in Omaha, Nebraska and wouldn't have known the difference. It was overpriced and you had to risk your life to cross the street. There should have been a huge crosswalk with a pedestrian controlled light.

You can't force an architect/interior designer to have taste. This hotel was boring and tasteless. It could have been built in the 80's for all the charm it didn't have.

UDP MLA's Those who stand with Bush will be remembered and will go the same way he does, a member of the worst government in Cayman history. Dont sell out, I am sure he has had little talks with each of you about whatever needs to be done to make sure you are on his side. Dont sell out, stop this wholesale theft of public money, cronyism and being a puppet for dart projects

No confidence, Here ,Here. I agree, both party's are loosers. I would'nt vote for either one. Every one should look at the record of both party's and ask themselves " do they deserve my vote" seriously the PPM is no different than the UDP when it comes on spending and mud slinging.